Putting attitudes into perspective

“DARN this Covid creature! Messed up our lives. Economy destroyed. Relatives disintegrated. Can’t enjoy holidays. Can’t have visitors. No more picnics with friends. Education disrupted … !”

And our complaints are endless. Very much like cursing the weather: “This horrible humidity, this incessant rain, this howling wind, this merciless tsunami, this cruel tornado, this terrifying typhoon … this … !!”

Actually, who the hell do we think we are? Most probably a creation by some accident of all the right variables coming together and biologically, mathematically, perhaps even magically, satisfying the equation for

existence?

Not unlike all the rest of the other creatures bright, large, small, dumb, different? Pandemics come and go. This one is no different. Very much part of evolution. Nature does not bottle up winds of change. No alteration in temperature means no wind, no evaporation, no rain, no life.

Are we any different from any other creature that howls at the moon, scampers into the nearest hidey-hole when even the slightest noise disturbs our senses? Are we much different from dogs that kill to retain their territory? More enlightened than jackdaws that make it their daily mission to get up in the morning and scramble for shiny things that glitter in the sun but lose their shine at night?

Any dissimilar to ants that leave the temporary security of their nest, most probably never to return?

Much different from herbivores that wander a bit too far from mum and become prey to carnivores?

Nature continues on her march, unperturbed. We fancy ourselves as the greatest creation. With our fancy villas, cars with lowered chassis, garages filled with status junk, and bank accounts to match.

And always feel privileged. Superior to low-caste wolves, jaguars, hyenas … even people! And continue complaining about the nuisance of this pandemic. Forgetting that unforgiving evolution marches on, unstoppable.

Our instinctive aggression and puerile resentment of one another’s habits, also artificially termed “colour, race, religion, culture”; ample proof that we are not the privileged highest creation around.

Only evolution is. Don’t we love to show off our history, our origins, our backgrounds, our language, our special deities – as if these were selectively chosen by us to be able to boast about – and still pride ourselves as being clever?

EBRAHIM ESSA | Durban